Wednesday, December 12, 2007

I have been creating a bit off an on. Here's what I have been up to. :) The calendar project is my first "assignment" as a CT member for Heart in Hand Scraps. The original class is by the amazingly talented Linda Albrecht and can be purchased and downloaded here. The instructions are clear and easy to follow and you can adapt to what you have on hand as I did. Why take a class at a scrappy store using what they supply, when you can take a class in the comfort of your own home, whenever you want to and with whatever you like? This was so fun to make and I am going to make several more. While you are there, be sure to take a look at the other fun classes by all the other crazy talented designers. :)

The pretty orange-ish layout was created for this weeks Weekly Design Team Inspiration over at CMK. This weeks inspiration is to highlight key words in your journaling by using a different color, font, boxing those words in, etc...I did some simple journaling using some die cuts and I placed them so that even without the "filler" journaling, the message would still be clear. It didn't turn out as journal-y as I had hoped, but I was sick and just getting it done was an accomplishment. lol!If you look closely at the "got leaves" layout, you'll see Skylar's head poking out from the leaf pile. heehee. They had a lot of fun in that huge pile!

Monday, December 10, 2007

If you haven't read all the big announcements over at CMK today, you've gotta head over and check things out!First, Rebecca is stepping down as the owner of CMK to pursue bigger and better things! yay! I am sad to see her step down as the owner, but the fabulous Lisa Tilmon has purchased CMK and has a lot of exciting things planned for 2008. You can read about this exciting change here.Secondly, the best news of the day is this! Congrats Rebecca and Holly!!! I have no doubt this is going to be amazing and smashing and I can't wait to see what has been going on behind the scenes for such a long time! These two are super talented and smart and will take Pink Paislee to the top!The third big announcement of the day on CMK is that there is a DT call! Ladies, this is an amazing site to design for and I am really looking forward to seeing what Lisa is going to bring to CMK. If you have been on the fence about joining this community, now is the time to go for it! It's my "home" on the net and I am sure you'll see why I love it so. And I am thrilled to say that the fabulous Tina as well as myself have been asked to stay on and assist with the DT/kit aspects at CMK. Yahoo! I am eager to work with Lisa, and although it's sad that our current team term is coming to end, I am looking forward to seeing who the new team members will be. Change is always hard but we've had an amazing year and I have made some great friends. I am blessed to have had the opportunity to work with these amazing women and get to know more about them throughout the year. They are crazy talented and each one is near and dear to my heart.That's all I have to say today. So many big things happening over at CMK and I hope to see you there!Happy Monday!Rae

Thursday, December 6, 2007

I had the best of intentions to update this thing at least every other day. I sat down Monday and then got sidetracked, the same thing on Tuesday and yesterday I just wasn't in the mood. So today I will update the week thus far.

My surgery is going to be on Dec. 20th at 2:30PM. Just two weeks from now I will have a huge gash from the inside of my ankle up to my lower calf. I am not so much worried about the surgery as I am the recovery time and this is starting to hit me. I am not patient and I am going to have sutures in for 13 days which means no weight on my foot period. I am a pretty tough person, but I just have to say that I am pretty stressed out right now and I have been crying off and on throughout the past few days. I think a lot of it is relief that this really could be the answer and all the pain and mental and physical affects of this *should* be corrected and I will be "myself" again soon. And then there is the recovery. It's going to be a long road and it's still going to be weeks before I am walking and bearing weight again and I am just so tired already. At least for the past few weeks I have been able to put some weight on my foot using the crutches for the main support, but it's been a nice break for my upper body. Not to mention the possible effects of the surgery which I just pray don't happen. The unknowns are what scare me the most.We've had some issues with Nathan that add to my stress and between everything I have hardly been able to sleep. I just can't shake this cold and it's just getting worse. My nose is congested and every now and then it runs like crazy which sucks, I have been sneezing non-stop and my throat is screaming. (Karma for making that card for Rachel I am sure... lol!). I am chilled and exhausted, but I just can't sleep more than a few hours at a time. I am drinking some extra wine tonight in hopes that it will be just enough to knock me out. After Grey's of course. ;)

OK, on a positive note... Monday was a nasty rainy and windy day, however there was no snow on the ground and I was able to get out for the first time in a week by myself so I went for it! I took some things back to get refunds/exchanges and then finished all the kids stocking stuffers. I hobbled around Target for over an hour with one crutch using the side of the cart in place of the other crutch. Not an easy task in the least, and it was exhausting. My ankle was screaming afterwards, but it was well worth it because it is the first time since August that I have gone to a store and shopped ALL BY MYSELF. I felt accomplished and like I have finally not been a burden upon everyone else. I did get several odd looks, but then again most people aren't breathing heavy and wincing with each step while hogging an aisle because they need to use the cart to get around. I must admit there were a few times I just thought "this is crazy, I should just leave and come back later with some help". I then wanted a Teryaki Rice Bowl for lunch and I had about 20 minutes to kill before they opened so I went to Toys R Us which is across the street to check out the games. I have been wanting the Pink Boutique Monopoly edition since I first saw it there and I decided that I was going to splurge. Surprisingly it was on sale for $20.99 so I picked it up along with a cute Littlest Pet Shop Guess Who? game for Ashlyn that was also on sale. I am so glad I decided to stop by!I then went to lunch and let me just tell you that a wonderful man really surprised me by getting up from his lunch just to open the door for me. I had no idea that he had done that until after I had ordered and I was waiting for my food and I saw him eating. A sudden warmth spread over me and my faith in kindness returned. He even got up as I was leaving to open the door as I left and offered to help me to my car which I declined, but it was so very sweet of him and I will never forget his kind act. In all the time I have been on crutches, I can count the times that others have offered to help me; less than 10. Now how freaking sad is that? I have gone up to doors and there have been people who just couldn't wait the extra few seconds to hold the door open for me even though they looked at me (or maybe it was through me), and even times when people have been standing right beside the door on their phones and then look at me and not even make a move to help. Some doors are really heavy and a huge challenge to open while balancing on one foot and trying to maneuver the crutches. I try to find the good in people, but lately it's been challenging. However all it takes is one stranger to remind me that there are good people out there.

After I ate lunch on Monday I turned the Christmas music up and wrapped all the rest of the gifts and sorted all the kids' stocking stuffers into individual bags so it's easier for Kenny to fill them. I am going to miss doing all of this myself, but this Christmas is going to be out of my hands and into the hands of everyone else. I will be a director and not a doer which is so hard for me. lol!

Tuesday I had the urge to tackle Skye and Ashlyn's disaster zone and spent several hours going through their closet and drawers and Ashlyn's Littlest Pet Shop toys. I spent almost 2 hours just separating all the LPS stuff into bins and baggies so it would be easier for her to find and clean up. I was amazed at all that she has, but then again it's about the only things she has toy wise. At least she plays with them everyday and they are just too darn cute! I got rid of a huge box of clothes that they aren't wearing and now they can actually hang thier clothes up without having to cram them in their closet. I even convinced Ashlyn to get rid of 10 more stuffed animals. I also spent the day doing laundry. I swear laundry just magically appears from nowhere at times.

Yesterday I volunteered to work the Book Fair at Ashlyn's school for 4 hours. it was fun, but I was tuckered out when I got home. LOL! Classroom after classroom of kids sure can take a lot out of one. Again, another moment when I have the utmost respect for teachers. :) AND I was able to walk out of there with only $37 worth of books, I think this is a record for me. I usually drop at least $100 at these things because I just love to buy books. I was proud of my restraint, but it was hard. Before the classes arrived I had about 30 minutes to gather books that I was interested in and I had quite a stack, but at each between class break I would put one or more away and soon I was just down to 3 books for Ashlyns' teacher, one for me, one for Skye and 2 for Ashlyn that I wasn't going to let go. Not bad. However tomorrow is the last day and I may go back for a few more. haha!

I have been scrapping a bit. I have so many ideas, but no energy. Here are two layouts I created this weekend. I hope to have another one tomorrow.

Oh, one more thing... Holly, the owner of Pink.Sugar.Pop. is closing out the stamps. She's moving onto bigger and better things. So, if you are looking for some PSP stamps, this is the last time to get them. Everything in the store is 25% off and going fast! You can check them out here.I am sad to see PSP go, but I have no doubt Holly's next venture is going to be amazing!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

I managed to get a cute picture of Charlie this morning. Check out the size of those paws! He's going to be gigantic! Eek! Angel, our lab, is still a bit skittish and afraid of him except when they go outside. Angel sure loves having him to play with. The cats are freaked out, and surprising Jake who is the king of the cats is the most afraid. He won't even come in the house on his own, he'd rather mill around under my car in the front yard and wait to be brought in by anyone willing to get him. Molly is the only one who could really care less. She hisses when Charlie gets too close, but other than that she just goes on about her own way. The other 3 cats just freeze up and stare and get all puffy. It's pretty funny, but I am sure in time they'll get used to him.

And now some scrappy stuff.the "got snot?" card is for my friend Rachel who has been suffering from a runny nose for a long time now. I felt a bit devilish and decided to make a card for her. ;) I hope it cheers her up!

the ur so sweet card is based on a card sketch over at Di Hickman's blog (scroll down to the Nov. card #4). I used a Pink.Sugar.Pop. stamp, glitter and celaphane to cover it.

The layout is one I started 2 weeks ago, but just needed to add the finishing touches. I rarely leave a layout for more than a day and it was driving me nuts not having it finished.

It was much warmer today, about 34' most of the day, even though with the wind chill it felt like it was in the teens. It was crazy windy and it snowed huge flakes sideways almost all day, but nothing stuck because it was above freezing. Bummer. We would have had at least 6"+ out of this one if it would have come a bit earlier. Oh well, at least the roads won't be a wicked mess (other than the slush) and I will be able to take Kara to her Dr. appt. on Tuesday morning. Saves Kenny a trip. I will also be able to run errands and hopefully finish up Christmas shopping.

The kids went out sledding at the park and they had a good time. It was warm enough for them to stay out for a few hours, but that also meant that the snow just turned to a slushy mess so they came home a bit let down. Hopefully we'll get a lot of snow next weekend and Kenny can take the kids to the park we went sledding at last Winter.I stayed inside and scrapped today. I managed to create 2 layouts and I have started on a 3rd. I am having mojo problems though, so I will work on it tomorrow.Good night!

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Today was full of so many wonderful things!!! These days don't come along all that often, and when they do it makes them twice as great!

First of all I was asked to be a Creative Team member over at Heart In Hand Scraps! I am beyond thrilled to be working with the uber talented instructors and the other 3 CT members! Yay!!! I am a huge fan of Tammy's work as well as the instructors, they have amazing talent and I just hope some of it rubs off on me!

Secondly, today was a fabulous mail day! I got two scrappy packages from 2peas that I just ordered on Wed. I have never had such quick turnaround from them. I hope this is the way it will be from now on because sometimes they are the only site that carry a lot of everything I want and I have not ordered often from them.AND I received a wonderful card and generous gc from a friend (my dh works with her dh) who I had let go through all of my huge scrappy boxes of stuff I purged earlier in the year. She wrote me the nicest letter and even included several photos of layouts she had completed using the items I gave her. Now that feels great! It's so nice to see that someone appreciated it and has been able to use things and truly enjoy them. That's what it's all about. :)

It snowed almost all day! I love the snow! It's so pretty.

Lastly, I caved into getting the kids (including Kenny ;)) a puppy we saw at the pet store last weekend. He's a Great Dane mix (mostly Great Dane, he's huge!) and is about 3 months old. Kenny and the kids feel in love with him, but we didn't want to get a puppy just because the pressure from the kids. On a whim my dh stopped by the pet store on our way home from running errands and the puppy was still there, so with a lot of pleading from my dh I agreed. *sigh* I am so not a dog person, however the kids are and it's such a simple thing to make them happy which makes me happy. Fair enough. ;)We named him Charlie and we were able to sneak him in the house without the kids seeing and Kenny took him into the bedroom while I asked the kids to unload the car. When they were all done, they came to our bedroom door and this is when they first saw him. Ashlyn started crying and almost dropped the bag of fish she was holding (hers had died so we got her a replacement along with 2 more), Skye started screaming and then Ashlyn did, too. I thought I was never going to be able to hear again. lol! Kara was jumping up and down like crazy with tears streaming down her face and Nathan had a grin from ear to ear. Meghan was at work, but she started crying when she came home and saw him. The reaction was priceless and well worth it to see the joy upon their faces.Angel was very afraid of him at first, but once they were both outside, they hit it off and ran around in the snow playing with each other. It was so cute! Angel seems happy to have a playmate, even if it's just outside for now. She's still skittish in the house, but I am sure in time they will be best buddies.I'll post some pics later. I need to try to get a good one. He's going to be a big dog. His mom was a monster and his paws are huge! Oh boy, what did I just agree to?!

Friday, November 30, 2007

Here are the projects I created with the gorgeous December Winter Whimsy kit from Create My Keepsake.I think my favorite thing about this kit is the colors. No, maybe the velvet letters. No... it's gotta be the glimmer mist! I love this stuff! I have been wanting to try this for awhile now and I want one of each color now!

I was really hoping to get out today, but it's not going to get above 24' so even though the sun is shining, the side streets are frozen as well as anything else that is wet and not de-iced. So in I stay. Tomorrow we are expected to get some more snow, but hopefully it will hold off until Kenny can take me to the store.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Here is a card and a layout using the fabulous Paper Trunk products. It's been a great honor to have been the November TDOM and I thank you for selecting me Carrie! I enjoyed working with everything and am excited to see what new products are in store for PT!

Now for another update on my foot/ankle. I had a dr. appt. this morning and since I am not much better surgery is the next step. I am anxious about having to be laid up again and just dealing with the anesthesia which usually knocks me down for at least 36 hours. I just hope surgery is the solution. I am more than ready to be "normal" again and be able to walk and not be dependent upon others. Not sure of the date yet, but hopefully soon. An ideal time would be when the kids are home for Christmas break because I won't be able to walk for the 10-14 days the sutures are in. Having them around to help would be perfect! Ashlyn is so funny because she told me in a very serious tone that she would be more than happy to stay home from school to help me out. LOL! This kid will do anything to stay home with me. Oh, how I love her!

Just waiting for Grey's to come on. I am so tired and I am not sure I will even make it until 9 to watch it! I wrapped Nathan's Christmas and Birthday presents and am just waiting on a few more things and then he's all done. I am on top of things this year and it will be nice to actually sit back and just enjoy Christmas time and all the wonder and excitement of the season.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Here she is in all her glory! The CMK Winter Whimsy kit. This kit is beautiful! Look for projects tomorrow or the day after. ;)

I got a project requested for the April/May 2008 issue of Paper Trends. Yay! My altered bird mobile. How fun is that?!

I did some cyber shopping today. I picked up some books for the kids for Christmas on Amazon.com and I splurged on some scrappy stuff. I got some FPD Christmas chipboard, some pp and a clear acrylic album from Page Frames. I am bound and determined to create a mini-album sometime.

I am just waiting for the snow, it should be here any time now. We are expected to get about 4-6" before this storm has passed us by. A Winter Wonderland for sure!Have a great evening!Rae

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Hi! I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving! We traveled over to Snohomish on Wed. morning to spend Thanksgiving with my family at my parents house. It was a very long drive and I was quite ready to get out of the car after 6 hours on the road. I had finished my last physical therapy session for now that morning and he worked my leg hard and I was in pain and aggrivated. Of course I took it out on Kenny. ;)As soon as we got to my parents house, my mom snagged my up and we went to Lasting Memories, which is a scrapbooking store in the Alderwood area. It was wonderful to get to go to a scrappy store that actually carries a lot of new stuff! I even got to see the Creative Cafe display that I have heard everyone raving about. I was oohing and ahhing over everything. My mom treated me to a few small items which was very kind of her. I picked up some foofala buttons, some pp and a handful of the felt flowers from Creative Cafe. I only wish we had a store this cool around me, at least close by. There's a store in Cd'A that I like, but I just don't get out that way too often.After the visit to the scrappy store, my parents took us out to a nice dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. Fun times and good food! I think they were trying to prep us for Thanksgiving dinner. lolThanksgiving was awesome! My brother Travis and his family had shown up late Wed. night while we were sleeping. Him, my dad and I made a Starbucks run and then went back home to veg. We scoured the papers and Travis helped Kara with her Pre-Calculus homework, which took several hours. While scouring the papers I ran across a cute little Pinkish special edition Nintendog DS and knew that Ashlyn would adore this! I joked with my mom that she should take me out shopping Friday morning not thinking too much about it and she asked me if I was serious and I told her no way! Ha! Boy was I wrong.In the early afternoon my other two brothers showed up as well as the neighbors who are like family to us. It got real loud, real quick. My brothers and I started drinking wine and my brother Travis got quite intoxicated which is not his style. He and I were cracking up and having a great time! We usually drink, but not this much and even I felt it more than normal. This is when I decided that I was for sure going to go shopping and that Toys R Us was the place we were going to go. And since the store opened at 5AM we needed to be there by at least 4, so if we left by 3:40 we'd be there. My mom told me that if I was serious in the morning then we'd go.I was. And crazily enough we left at 3:30 Friday morning and headed out. It was insane! Me, on crutches with a cast. Me, who loathes crowds and avoids them as much as possible. Me, who doesn't care for shopping unless I have a purpose, went out on Black Friday to do the very thing I never imagined I would do again. And I had an awesome time! My mom asked me why I wanted to do this and my reply was "Beacause I can.". I didn't think for a minute that I was going to get that DS since quantites are usually low on electronic items, but I thought what the heck, I have nothing to lose but spending a few crazy hours with my mom. It was insane and there were at least 200 people in front of when we slid into line at 4, and I really lost all hope of getting anything. Guess what? I got the DS and even a Sony digi camera for Meghan which was $50 off! Awesome! We were out of the store by 5:30. Only one person was rude to me and she actually rammed her cart into me and told me to "move it!". I restrained myself from beating her with a crutch. Some people are rude and this is just life. She's got to live with herself, not me. My mom took me to Starbucks after that which just happened to be in the Target parking lot. After we sat down and drank our drinks, we decided to go to Target since they were going to open at 6 and it was too early to go back home. Now that place had a line! We didn't walk to the back of the line since it was super long, but we did wait up front for the end of the line to come and it took over 10 minutes. People were just piling in like crazy! Surprisingly it didn't seem packed and Target was very organized. We spent an hour and half walking around and I ended up getting a portable DVD player for Skye with a 10" screen and some other little things for the girls.All in all it was a successful venture. I didn't expect anything, yet accomplished to get everything I wanted. Not too bad! And I enjoyed the one on one with my mom that we never get. Not like this. I would do it again. :)Once we got back we loaded up the car and headed down South to Tacoma to spend the rest of Friday with Kenny's parents and two of his brothers. Another wonderful time! We got to see Emily and Mike and his new wife and her daughter. Mom and Dad looked great and it was nice to kick back and just talk like we used to when we lived over there. We sure miss everyone, but we love it over here!We left for home late Friday night, about 7PM and made excellent time. We here home by midnight. The animals were happy to see us and it was so great to lay in our own bed. There's no place like home, that's for sure!I have just been trying to play catch up the past few days. I have also come down with a cold in stages which has been dragging me down, but at least I wasn't slammed full force.

I have some scrappy stuff to share. The two cards are using the awesome Pink.Sugar.Pop. stamps, some stacked boxes I made using Cosmo Cricket which is the November sponsor over at CMK, some layouts, as well as 2 altered items for a CT call I submitted for over at Heart In Hand Scraps. Tammy owns this site and it would be an honor to be on the CT! The project designers are super talented and creative and this team would be such a fun opportunity. Wish me luck!

We got about 3" of snow last night. Yay! It did stink being confined to the house all day, but at least it's beautiful outside. More is on the way tomorrow, we're expected to get snow for about 24 hours and we may end up with 5"+ by the time the storm has blown over Thursday night. That's what I call snow! It's early for us to get this much, but I'll take it.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

It's that time yet again, wow how time flies! Here is the sneak peek of the December Create My Keepsake kit 'Winter Whimsy'. This kit really fits the image Rebecca and I wanted; we wanted something different, but with a specific Wintery/Glittery/Whimsical/Crhsitmas-ey feel to it with the colors red and blue. (we sure don't want much do we. ;)) Not an easy task, but we are thrilled with the result and it's going to be another amazing kit! I can't wait to see it all IRL!

My neighbor Stacie called me today on her way home from work and asked me if I would like to go to lunch with her. How sweet! Once Ashlyn got home we went out to a nice Mexican place and had a great meal and a great talk. It's been a long time since we've had a nice sit down outside of the home. :) It was fun to get out of the house. After lunch Ashlyn and I went to Target and I picked up a few gifts for Skye and Emily and even one for Ashlyn that I sneaked in the cart. I also got the Josh Groban Noel CD. His voice is heavenly!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

I just thought I'd post since it's been a few days. My goal is to maintain this thing daily or as close to it as possible. I just want to have something scrappy for each one. ;) Speaking of scrappy,I do have a layout of Kara I made last weekend. I just love these beautiful photos, and these papers and colors were the perfect combination!

Today I watched a movie, 'Reign Over Me'. I can't say why I liked it, some of the material didn't even seem to have a place in the movie overall, but I was hooked and even shed a few tears. It's a serious movie with a few laughs thrown in. Tonight I am going to try to watch 'Talk To Me' since I have to return the movies tomorrow. I have watched 2 moves this week which is different since I usually take days to watch one.

And now onto my foot. I have been wearing a shoe a bit and it still feels icky, but it's getting easier to put on and leave on for more than an hour without feeling the need to hurl. I do this a few times a day and I have managed to take a few small steps. I looked for some Crocs during the weekend while we were out and about, but they didn't quite fit; they were too small or too large. I really wish they had half sizes because they were quite comfortable. I then tried several pairs of tennis shoes on, but that was a no go. I'd rather be barefoot than have pain like that. I'll try again in a week or so and maybe it'll be better then. It's all the padding and cushioning that hits exactly where my pain originates from. I have to say that they sure felt good on my left foot... that shoe is beyond worn out.I am walking some, in fact I am bearing more and more weight on my foot with the crutches and am able to walk around a bit without them. I walk about 1/3 of the time now. I think I have been overdoing it a bit because my ankle muscle is sore, but it's so hard to not use it now. I am still being cautious and not taking anything for pain so I don't push myself too far too fast. It becomes more of a mental challenge each day to have to use the crutches. This whole process is mentally and even physically exhausting, more so than I ever imagined it could be. It's amazing how much one injury can take, I have been dealing with this for 6 months exactly now and have to wonder how much longer it's going to take. *sigh*

Ashlyn isn't feeling well today. She was stuffed up and tired when she went to school, but today was her last full day until after Thanksgiving weekend so I sent her. They have parent/teacher conferences from tomorrow until the 21st, which means half days. My conference for Ashlyn is on Friday. She's got a bit of a fever now and is sleeping, so I am pretty sure school is out for her tomorrow. I just hope if anyone else is going to come down with something that it's now and not during Thanksgiving.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Cosmo Cricket is the sponsor for CMK this month and Rebecca generously sent me some of the Wonderland collection to play along this month. I created 4 cards and a stack of boxes, which I will photograph tomorrow and share.

I think I am almost done making my Christmas Cards. I found a stack from last year that I never sent off and have been making a few here and there, so I am pretty much good to go. I am going to make some "special" cards for those who I know appreciate them, but I still have some time for that.

Today I pretty much vegged. I didn't even get out of my jammies. :) I did several loads of laundry, watched a bit of a movie, scrapped and just hung out in Skye and Ashlyn's room watching all of Skye's fish. She bought 3 fish last week to replace the 3 that have died recently and one of them had babies immediately. At first we counted 6 babies, but now there are 11 of them! They are strong and healthy and all over the place. So far the bigger fish (6 of them) seem to just leave them alone. I sure hope they all survive, but I am not counting on it. Another of the fish she got is also pregnant so there might be more babies soon. Even if just a few of them survive we are going to have to go out and get her a bigger tank.

Even dinner was easy... Roasted Garlic Bread with chunks of garlic and Organic Tomato Basil soup. All courtesy of the trip to Costco the girls and I took last night. I have never had tomato soup until last night, and after the girls tried a sample, I figured I might as well, too. I was pleasantly surprised. I don't even know why I have never tried it before, but I will be buying it again soon. A little goes a long way. It was the perfect end to a cool, rainy, windy and lazy day. :)

Thursday, November 8, 2007

I am so excited!!! *big hugs grin* My wall art projects (a few posts down) were just picked up for the Scrapbook Trends Embellish It idea book! *happy dance* I am thrilled to be in this book along with so many of my scrappy friends and all the other amazing artists!

let me see... today I had pt. and it went well. I am progressing wonderfully and was even able to do some new exercises. Some were a bit uncomfortable and caused some pain, but I managed to work my way through them. I really need to work on getting my foot into a shoe, but so far I just can't. My therapist suggested I try some Crocs. Not really the best time of year to get some, but I think I will look into them just to get out of this cast when I am out of the house. The more I walk, the better I feel, yet the more I walk the more it hurts. It's a catch 22, but I am working to find just the right balance to keep moving ahead without falling back.

Skye had a wire pop out on one of her front teeth this morning while she was brushing them and I couldn't get her in to replace the wire until 2:30. And she was out of wax so she had to walk to school with a wire poking into her top lip. Thankfully one of her friends had some extra wax that she was able to use to stop it from poking into her lip.

I rented a few movies today. 'Sicko' by Michal Moore is a real eye-opener. I recommend it! Kara and Meghan are watching it now and I know it's affecting how they think and maybe even thinking about what they can do in the future to help themselves. Kara wants to move to France now and she even told me that she would pay for my dh and I to move over there. Touching and such a sweet thing to say. We'll see. lol! Even if you are not a fan of his, it's a great movie and it makes me even more thankful that we have such awesome medical coverage. We are blessed to not have to cut through all the red tape as we have in the past with other companies or even have to have referrals. That in itself is worth every penny we pay for our coverage. I often think though what one serious medical condition for any of us would do to us financially as a family. It would wipe us out. Especially if it were to happen to Kenny as he is the bread winner and I am not skilled enough to make the amount of money he does. I do worry about this often. If I were more eloquent, I could actually write something worth reading about this, but as of late my brain seems to be mush and nothing intelligent comes out. Ha!

Tonight is Grey's! Wohoo! My favorite TV night. I missed last week because I feel asleep at 9:05. wah, and I just hope I can make it through tonight.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

I shouldn't complain. It's the first rain we've had in almost a month. I just got used to the beautiful sunshine! I just want to crawl back under the covers and hide all day now.

Here are 2 layouts I created for my gig as TDOM. These papers are gorgeous! They are double- sided, thick and the colors are rich and warm. The stamps are awesome! The quality is great and the ink washes easily off without a struggle. Not to mention that 12x12 is such a fun size for a stamp. If you haven't ordered any, you really should! :)

I also created a little notebook to slip into my purse. There is a tab for each child as well as a general family tab. I plan to recorded the kids' Christmas lists and what I have purchased for each of them in this. Hopefully this will avoid repeats (especially for those LPS toys that I can't seem to keep track of) and will be handy as we are out and about trying to figure out who wants which size or color or scent since those things seem to always change with all these girls! lol

And I decided to give the Sketch This: Cards blog #31 sketch a try. I have never done these before, but after seeing the gorgeous cards my scrappy friends create with the sketches, I just had to jump in. I think I am going to try to do this each week. It was really easy to follow the fun sketch. :)

I had another whoopsie last night. Ashlyn had her coat on the floor and I asked her multiple times to pick it up. Well I went down the hallway and I thought she had moved it while I was in my room. Nope. The next thing I know I am trying to keep myself upright with pain shooting up my leg. I have slipped a few times in the last several weeks, but this one had me in tears. I couldn't feel parts of my foot and ankle, even applying ice did nothing. I took 2 pain pills and went to bed early hoping it would feel better today. It does a bit, however I have a large bruise on my leg now and still have some tingling and pain. I think it's going to be OK, but I am pretty upset. I had really felt pretty good yesterday and was able to walk around a bit more. Not today. Oh well, things could be worse. It's just more frustrating than anything because I really want to keep moving forward, not falling back and having to keep making up the ground I lost.

Skye has her very first Middle School conference today. She's nervous because in ms it's a student led conference. Each student prepares their own review, with a teachers help, and then they present their goals, their achievements, where they feel they need to improve and share some of their best work from each class. I have been through these with Kara and Meghan and they are such a great idea! The kids are responsible for their progress, their goals, etc. and they learn valuable skills on organization, time management and visual and oral presentation. I know she's going to do well!

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Yesterday morning I took the girls to get their hair cut. Ashlyn was flipping through the books and she was picking out all the short, funky hairstyles, which was surprising to me, however she said that she wanted to donate her hair to others who need it. Aww.... a very sweet moment. Skye was not as determined as she was and selected a style that required just a bit of a trim.Ashlyn bravely sat in the chair and watched as her hair was bundled into a pony tail and then cut off. At first I really thought she was going to cry, but it was because she thought that was all that was going to happen and she wanted her hair "styled". I assured her that the hairdresser just needed to cut the hair off first and then she would give a nice new cut. She was relieved. She wasn't overly thrilled when the stylist was done because she wanted a more jagged, mature cut and I didn't think that she needed that at 8 years old. ;) I am sure it was shocking for her. She lost about 8" of her hair, but she looks so cute and fresh!Skye was watching her and I think this sparked her to think long and hard and she decided that she was going to donate her hair too. So she bravely sat in the chair and she ended up donating 12" of hair. She has a fresh new look as well and it really brings out her pretty eyes and sweet face. She's also thrilled with the end result!It's quite a shock to see them without their long golden trusses, especially Skylar because that really seemed to identify her. I think her friends are going to be blown away when they see her cute cut!I am so proud of them!!! They did this on their own and they should feel wonderful and happy because they gave a gift that is going to be cherished by someone who is so needful and deserving. It really is the little things in life that are the most beautiful! These are the moments that make every difficult moment as a mother just melt away because I know that I have taught them to be loving and giving and thoughtful of others. :)

I would have taken my camera had I known they were going to do this. It would have been great to have the before and after pics of them actually holding their hair. ;)

Friday, November 2, 2007

It's finally Friday. The sun is shining and it's awesome! Sunshine makes me happy! Even a bad day doesn't seem so bad when the sun is out. I can't stand days of gloom, I've gotta have my sun and natural light!It's been a long week but it's not like the weekend is going to be any different. lol My foot is still very sore from PT on Tuesday, but it's slowly getting better. I go back to PT on Monday, so I am guessing it's going to feel like crap once again in a few days. *sigh*

let me see... I made some things to hang in my scrappy space. I am thrilled with how they turned out and can't wait to hang them. I just *love* the MM Noteworthy collection! I think this is one of my favorite paper collections ever!

I am purging my alterable stash yet gain. I did so earlier last month and got rid of about half of it and decided that it was time to do it again. I have gotten rid of over half once again. I feel so free of the useless clutter. I am not a huge clutter fan, however I think I take after my grandmother at times; she saved and collected everything with the intent to use it. She never did. I have had several of these things for years. I just can't keep saving them with the thought of "someday I will use this". If I really need it later, I can find something else.I moved some things around, including putting all my pp together on a higher shelf so it's more accessible to me now. I may have everything off the foosball table by the end of the day, too. At least that's the goal, but who knows what will happen. The kids might actually be able to use it now! heehee It seems to have become my catch all, and I pile more and more on it. Totally not cool.We are going to be changing things up a bit downstairs to make it a more usable and functional space, so I need to downsize anyway. I am going to lose about 1/2 of my space for now, which is fine. I needed a real push to dump things I have no use for. I am pleased with how clean and organized my "improved" space is looking already. I wish I would have thought to take some before pics, but I just kind of dug in. I will get some after, which should be soon.

I received some gorgeous papers and stamps from Paper Trunk (thanks so much Carrie! :)) yesterday for my TDOM spot this month. Let me just say that this stuff is amazing! The texture and the colors are wonderful! I have one layout almost complete and an idea for a second one. The stamps look really fun and I am excited to use them, too!

Here some pics of the girls last night. My camera battery died so I had to use Kara's camera and I didn't get good pics. :( Oh well. Skye went trick-or-treating with her friends in Sarah's neighborhood. She came home with a huge bag of candy buzzing with excitement! Meghan and Kara each took Ashlyn out for an hour each. Ashlyn was wiped out at the end of the night, but she managed to barely make it through 'Pushing Daisies' which happens to be her new favorite TV show. Since she doesn't start school until 10:05am on Thursdays I allow her to stay up late and watch it with us.

I am no longer watching Katie! I can't even express what a relief this is! I am thankful that Heather was able to find a daycare for her that she seems to like, and that it all happened so quickly. I sure didn't expect this to happen for weeks, but to be honest I didn't realize how much stress this was causing me until I got the confirmation last night that yesterday was my last day watching her. I did a happy dance and acted like a freak in the chair I was sitting in. My kids thought I had lost my mind for a bit there. lol I can now take care of me and my own family first which I haven't been able to do for months now.

I got my mojo back, too! Not having the freedom to create when the mood strikes for days on end is frustrating. I feel like "I" am back again which is the most satisfying feeling. It's OK to be selfish. I have earned it. ;)